


Too Many Secrets Make Her Laugh

by LifeOfMystery



Category: DCU (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s01e25 Usual Suspects, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Joker Junior - Freeform, Kissing, Romance, Scars, Secrets, Suicidal Thoughts, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 03:05:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18932137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LifeOfMystery/pseuds/LifeOfMystery
Summary: Artemis has a secret. She always thought she would take it to her grave, but since Superboy and M'gann both revealed theirs...Well, there's never a better time than the present.-AU using elements from Batman: Return of the Joker. TW for mention of scars and slight suicidal ideation.





	Too Many Secrets Make Her Laugh

M’gann’s real form was… differently interesting. Ebony white skin, stretched across a bony body. 

Artemis wanted to laugh, the similarities were so striking. But, as always, she didn’t. Better not make this moment any worse than it already was by forcing Young Justice to hear her laugh. 

Anyway, similarities aside, all M’gann had done was look odd. She hadn’t actually done anything to deserve the team’s hatred. But, Artemis, however...

Conner hugged her, and it was all nice, and peachy keen, and rosy sweet, and then they were done. 

Except Artemis wasn’t leaving until her secret was out too. Dick would probably say this was a terrible idea, but screw Dick. This was Artemis’s moment. 

“I’ve got something I need to tell you as well,” Artemis said. 

All head spun around to face her. Part of her nearly flinched back at the sudden attention, way too similar to citizen’s expressions at her past… activities. But Artemis was stronger than that.

“You too, Batgirl? Seriously?” Wally cried. 

“Sorry, Baywatch,” Artemis replied smoothly. She didn’t want to tell them, to see Wally’s expression contort into to disgust, to see the team hate her with such ease, but another deeper, darker part of her, longed to see such emotion play out on their stupid, little faces. 

Wait, stop. Bad thought process. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me. Even now, bits of her lingered.

Artemis strode over to the computer. She would prefer to do this without having to become… her. Video of herself back then always made her spine curl in on itself, but it was better than the alternative. 

“Batgirl,” Robin spoke urgently, “are you sure-“

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell them who we really are.” Artemis took a deep breath. “I just need them to know this.”

Robin didn’t reply. Dick probably knew there was no stopping her now, not when she had her mind set. It didn’t stop her from becoming Batgirl and it wouldn’t stop her now. 

Artemis brought up an image on the holoprojector. Jokette, Joker’s daughter, or at least, that was what everyone thought she was. Everyone knew she had disappeared a few years ago, but no one knew where or why.

Except for Artemis, Robin and Batman.

“Who’s she?” Zatanna asked. 

“Another one of Joker’s crazies,” Wally replied, shrugging. 

“Wally,” Robin admonished. 

“What?” 

Artemis forced herself turn around to face the team. Seeing their faces would be harder, but she had to do this. The truth had to come out. 

“She’s more than that,” Artemis said. “She was me.”

Shock reverberated round the room. Robin was looking at her with faint pride. The others were… less than happy. 

“Nah,” Wally replied easily, “You’re joking.” He winced over his poor choice of words. 

Artemis glared at him. “I wish I was.”

“Let her continue,” Kaldur spoke. You could always trust Kaldur to be calm, although Artemis was sure she could hear distrust bleeding through his stoic stance. 

Artemis unhooked her helmet, and let her blonde hair fall free around her face, domino mask still in place. She reached up to the charmed necklace around her throat, and paused. 

She could still stop now, backtrack and say she was kidding. It would be so easy to pretend. 

But she couldn’t. If anything, Dick wouldn’t let hear the end of it. 

Artemis undid the necklace, removing the glamour. Blonde hair turned to to shocking green, flawless tanned skin bleaching to white. She didn’t have to look to see the scars running from the edges of her lips to halfway up her cheeks. Artemis could feel them, always, even without the glamour. 

The shockwave was incredible. The team moved for their weapons, even Kaldur, the least brash of them all, twitched his fingers towards his.

Wally’s face was looking at her… like she was a killer. Which she was, Artemis reminded herself. No matter how many mantras Bruce made her repeat, and repeat, she was still a killer. 

“A special variant of Joker toxin was used on her,” Robin said. “Batman found the antidote. She’s cured, now.”

Artemis looked at Robin gratefully. If he wasn’t there, she would have ended up standing silent, until they attacked her, or worse, left. Forget what she said earlier about Dick, he was amazing. 

“Batman took me in and helped me,” Artemis spoke, confidence slowly restoring, “I got better with his help, and I convinced him to let me be Batgirl.”

Robin laughed. “She says ‘convinced’, I say ‘escaped in the middle of the night every week to fight criminals until he let her be official’.”

Artemis shrugged. “I would’ve kept doing it even if he’d said no.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Robin snorted. 

“How are you both so casual about this?” Wally cried. 

Artemis and Robin jumped, having forgotten about the reactions of the rest of the team. 

“Rob, she was with the Joker. The Joker,” Wally exclaimed. 

“This is all a bit much,” M’gann admitted. 

Artemis bowed her head. “I know what I’ve done, but I’ve been trying to repay-“

“You don’t get it,” Wally interrupted. “That’s not the problem.”

With a final angry look at Artemis, Wally sped off in the direction of the kitchen. 

She knew this would happen, that he would be angry. Why couldn’t she let things be? Wally hated her now, and it was Artemis’s fault. As always. 

“I’ll go talk to him,” Robin said. 

“No,” Artemis said decisively, “I’ll do it.”

She stared at the rest of the team who were looking at her with varying shades of doubt. 

To Robin, she said, “You can tell them the rest,” before leaving to find Wally. 

It was easy to find him. He was sat in the kitchen, moresly chewing on an old one of M’gann’s cookies while perched on a countertop. Artemis wanted to pull it out of his hand, tell him off for eating something that could have gone stale. But she couldn’t. Not until she had fixed things.

“Wally,” She called hesitantly.

His face blurred looking up at her. “Batgirl,” He replied tersely.

“Can I talk with you?”

“Okay…” He answered.

Artemis sat down hesitantly on the far edge of the countertop. Wally was looking at her, but he wasn’t moving away, so Artemis moved closer.

“What is wrong?” Artemis hedged, hoping her voice didn’t sound as unstable as she felt.

Wally laughed, a hollow mocking copy of his normal laugh. It put Artemis on edge, too close to the laughter contorted by joker venom.

“You didn’t tell me, but Robin knew. He knew the whole time and he didn’t tell me.”

Artemis was frustrated. This was what he was annoyed about?

Artemis jumped up from the surface. “Are you kidding me? Of course Robin knew, he was there. How could he not know?”

“I still should have known,” he argued.

Words burst out of Artemis in rage. “You didn’t deserve to know, it was my secret to tell! Why are you so angry about that anyway? No one else knew!”

Wally flew right back into her face. “I trusted you! When Red Arrow didn’t trust you, I did. I defended you to him, and you turn out to be a killer!” 

Shock rose on his face, disbelief at the word that had passed his lips. But it was too late.

That one single word hit like a bullet without the protection of a vest. “I’m not a killer,” Artemis hissed. But she was. She would always be one. No matter what Batman said, or Robin said, or anyone said. She was a killer, through and through.

“Batgirl-” Wally let out, but Artemis was done.

“No, you said I’m a killer, so treat me like one! Put me in jail!” Artemis was pushing on him now, pressing him up to the edge of the counter. “Or better yet, kill me! I’m a killer, you’d just be fixing the balance!”

Artemis grabbed Wally’s hand and pressed it over her heart. “Go on, do it!” She raged. 

“Will this make it easier?” Grabbing the necklace from her throat, she yanked it off. It bit at her neck, but that was nothing compared to the feeling of her scars fresh to the air. 

Wally’s face contorted in emotion, fear, disgust or something else, it didn’t matter. She knew what little he thought of her like this.

“Batgirl, stop. I’m not going to kill you!” He begged. He pulled his hand away from heart, and gripped her by the shoulders.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Wally said. There was a look in his eye half crazed, half sad, that kept Artemis from talking.

His hands loosened grip until they were only resting on them.

“I love you,” Wally whispered.

…

What.

“What?” Artemis croaked.

Wally froze. “Uh.. nothing?” 

His hands left her shoulder and began blurring in a panic fueled movement. “I wasn’t saying anything, nothing at all, no siree, nothing to hear here-”

“Wally, shut up,” Artemis whispered.

And then she kissed him.

She could feel the warmth in his lips, the slight texture of cookie dusting them. She could feel her scars, pressing up against his skin. But Wally wasn’t moving away. He was moving closer, undeterred by the scars. He was kissing her back.

They were kissing. Both of them, together and it was amazing.

Breathless, Wally broke apart. “I’m sorry for saying you’re a killer, I was very shocked and everything I said, I’m sorry, you’re really amazing, I don’t care about whatever you did-”

“Wally, shut up,” Artemis murmured.

And for once, he did.


End file.
